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Ravens Scheming To Shut Down Pistol Offense

NEW ORLEANS (CBS) - The Ravens continue preparations for their huge showdown against the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl.  As the countdown continues to gameday, the focus has shifted from sibling rivalries to gameplans for the opposing teams. Baltimore's biggest challenge rests with stopping the highly touted pistol formation that the 49ers have run to perfection in 2012. The Ravens will seek to shut it down in the Super Bowl.

"I think [the pistol read option] will have staying power in the league," stated John Harbaugh on Wednesday. "The beauty of it is and part of the genius of it is it's such a simple idea. It goes back to Nevada and Coach Ault out there. You can run your whole offense on it. You aren't limited to an option type attack out of it. Not just the entire run game but the entire pass game as well. The backs get position to protect. You can run all your drop back stuff, you can run power run game inside and outside, and you can run read option, triple option. So it's just a very versatile type offense and it forces you to defend a lot of different elements of the offensive attack."

The biggest element of the offensive attack is Colin Kaepernick, who holds a skill set that is tailor-made for this offense. So how to the Ravens plan on containing Kaepernick? Read more from CBS Baltimore.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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